


Reckless

by darkangelmya



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, First Kiss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26475331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkangelmya/pseuds/darkangelmya
Summary: After Galo comes to the Burnish’ aid during the Freeze Force raid, Lio has to consider why this man keeps reappearing in his life. Maybe consistency really was its own comfort; even if that constant was reckless idiocy.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 4
Kudos: 90





	Reckless

“You’re so damn reckless!” 

Lio’s voice reverberated off stone walls. He was familiar with the wilderness that surrounded Promeopolis, knew the mountains and the wilds, which paths were safe and which Kray watched with vigilance. He knew where to find shelter when being chased and how to hide an entire host of Burnish that the world had decided didn’t deserve to be treated like fellow human beings. 

Pink flames reflected off the rocks, the only illumination in the deep mountain cavern that was otherwise flooded with the midnight shadows. It carved from them hands slicked with blood, one pressed against the offending injury, the other trying to reduce what was left of white sleeves into bandages while Galo did his utmost to bleed out on the cavern floor.

The last few hours were a blur, a chaotic cacophony of events that Lio was still trying to properly sort out while the hum of adrenaline coursed through his system. Flames swelled and licked within his chest, their desire to roar higher climbing with each tension filled second. If this were one of the Burnish he’d have cauterized the wound and been done with it. Heavens knew he’d done it for Meis and Gueira enough times. This time however… this time was different.

“What was I supposed to do?” Galo protested with far more gusto than anyone with those kinds of injuries should possess. 

“Stop moving for starters.” Lio pushed more firmly against his side and earned a startled yelp for his trouble. 

“Ouch! Hey quit it that hurts!” 

“It wouldn’t hurt so much if you stopped waving your arms all over the place.”

Lio directed his scowl at the rapidly staining fabric. It wasn’t going to hold for long, even with makeshift bandages they’d need something by morning to change it or the gash was going to be the least of his problems. For a blessing there didn’t seem to be any signs of frostbite; Freeze Force weapons had a habit of leaving nasty wounds behind. 

“I am not flailing,” Galo insisted, but this time with more tempered movements. His complexion was paler than usual, and the dim fire was enough to light up the sweat that began to bead at his brow. “Besides, I wasn’t talking about just now.” 

“I know you weren’t,” Lio insisted, pulling a strip of fabric sharply around Galo’s waist. Lio knew perfectly well what he’d meant; Galo had been referring to what had happened back at the compound, but that was something Lio didn’t have an answer for yet. He was still trying to sort it all out himself. 

“Yeah well, what did you think I was going to do? I couldn’t just let him shoot you.” Galo said it easily, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world, as if they weren’t supposed to be enemies in all this. As if, for some reason, this idiotic firefighter had a reason to care if the leader of Mad Burnish lived or died.

“You’re stupider than I thought.” 

“What the hell, man! I saved your life! The least you could do is say thank you! I- argh!” Galo recoiled, his fervent protests pulled his side the wrong way and caused him to double over in pain. 

“I told you to stop moving. Your burning spirit can simmer down for a few seconds, I assume.” Stained fingers tie off the last of the bandages. Despite the layers, Lio could already see traces of pink at the heart of the wound. He hoped Meis and Gueria would be back soon. Morning might have been a generous estimate.

“Hey! A blazing soul can never be extinguished!” 

“So I’m discovering.” Lio let out a heavy sigh. He tossed what was left of his white shirt to the side in case he needed to shred it further and pulled his black jacket back up over his shoulders. His flames kept him from feeling the cold too acutely, but he was still more comfortable with the layer of fabric across his back. 

Lio circled the small fire. It was one of the narrower caverns hidden in the mountains; the angled entrance hid the glow of the flames and it made it easier to spot anyone approaching. It didn’t, however, leave them much room to maneuver and even across the fire felt too close. Lio surrendered to the reality of it and sat himself down with his back to the wall and eyes cast out into the night. With Meis and Gueira off getting supplies for the injured, he was the only one left to keep watch.

“What were you even doing out there?”

The day's events replayed unceremoniously in Lio’s mind. Freeze Force coming down on them, the panicked screams of the Burnish as their makeshift home crumbled to pieces. No matter how many times he went through it, there was one thing he couldn’t figure out. Treachery put the Freeze Force at their only sanctuary, but... 

Why was it every time he turned around he kept crossing this man? Why had Galo Thymos suddenly become an unexpected recurrence in his life? 

“How did _you_ find us?”

Silence hung heavily for a few seconds, the space filled only by the snap of the fire and the distant sound of shuffling. It was enough to pull Lio’s gaze towards his unexpected company. It wasn’t the first time he’d shared a cavern with this man, wasn’t the first time he’d seen seriousness carve unfamiliar expressions onto normally flamboyant features, but there was a weight to them this time that pressed the air against his chest in an entirely foreign way. 

“I thought about what you told me last time,” Galo spoke, his tone subdued as the space between them was heavy. “All that stuff about how Kray was doing experiments on the Burnish. I didn’t want to believe it! So I confronted him about it. He showed me, I saw what he was doing to them with my own eyes.” 

“So you finally got your head out of the sand,” Lio faintly shrugged. That was hardly a surprise; he’d heard of the atrocities, had tended to the Burnish that Kray had tossed aside like broken dolls. That had little and less to do with Galo himself. “That still doesn’t explain anything. What does it matter to you what happens to the Burnish?” 

“Of course it matters! I knew he was going after the Burnish, but I thought it was only those who started the fires! I thought they were being tried fairly. So when I saw that, when I said something about it- Kray he… he put a gun at my back, said he hated me, always wanted me dead.” Galo’s eyes fell, shadows casting over his face from the flickering flames. “I had always looked up to him, you know? I saw him as the kind of person that wanted to save people. I wanted to be just like that, to help others, to save them like I had been saved. What you said before, about how the Burnish are people too- I haven’t forgotten that. That’s why I can’t let him keep treating you all like this. I can’t look away from what he’s doing.” 

Those words stopped Lio’s thoughts in their tracks. Kray had betrayed him; Galo was as wanted as the rest of them, but instead of fleeing he’d-

“Sure maybe I could pretend I didn’t know any of it, but that’s not going to save the people that Kray is hurting!” Galo continued. “And it's not going to solve any of the other problems we have either. I told you I’m part of a rescue team. What kind of man would I be if I didn’t try to help someone who was in trouble?” 

“So you figured out what Freeze Force was planning and came to warn us?” Lio was beginning to see the puzzle pieces come together. 

“Yeah, I overheard it when I was escaping from the Foundation. I rode out as fast as I could, but they still almost beat me to it.” 

Silence fell between them again. They both knew the rest; Lio could still feel the lingering traces of disbelief when Galo appeared on their doorstep crying an alarm. That he had found them at all was proof enough they weren’t safe. The panicked evacuation of the able Burnish had finished in time. The lingering injured had taken longer to move, just long enough for the trucks to arrive. 

The fight had been desperate; and not everyone had been able to escape. Lio had never seen the Force out in those kinds of numbers. Of those that hadn’t evacuated yet, less than half were among their number now. Lio silently cursed; he’d failed again to keep them safe. If Galo hadn’t come… if he hadn’t been there to fight alongside them- how many more would have been captured? How many would have been _killed?_

“But they didn’t beat you.” Lio finally answered, glancing down at the bandages. He could still hear the gunshot, the bullet Galo had taken when Lio had been betrayed by one of his own, frost blooming in bruises up his side. But why? Why would he…?

“Guess not.” Galo grinned without the faintest shadow of regret. “I made it just in time!” 

“I suppose I owe you a thank you. If it wasn’t for you the last of the Burnish would have been captured.” 

“About time!” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Well I mean, a thank you isn’t that hard, is it?” Galo beamed with pride.

“Don’t push your luck.” Lio raised a brow. “You do realize this makes you a fugitive, right? If you try to go back to Promeopolis they’re going to arrest you for assisting terrorists.” 

“Terrorists, huh?” Galo glanced towards the cavern depths. The sound of shuffling travelled towards them; the Burnish they’d been able to save were trying to rest deeper within. Gather what strength they could for the upcoming journey. Where to…? No one knew the answer to that yet. Tired and hurting, all they wanted was a home, a place to live in peace. To fulfill their own dreams, even something so simple as making a good pizza for others. Was that… really such a bad thing? 

“Funny, I never really questioned that until now. Everyone knows Mad Burnish as the flame terrorists, but this is the second time I’ve spent with you guys, and I haven’t really seen any acts of terror. Ok yeah, the setting buildings on fire has to stop, but most of you guys are just normal people.” Galo let out a breath and shuffled, trying to ease the sharp ache from his injuries. “If saving people is a crime, then I guess I’m a criminal too. Besides, even if I hadn’t helped you, Kray isn’t going to let me walk right back into HQ. Not after telling me all that stuff about what he’s got planned. I couldn’t go back if I wanted to.”

“Kray told you his plans?” This immediately caught Lio’s interest. He’d been after that information for years, since long before he took up the leadership of Mad Burnish, yet he’d never been able to uncover so much as a trace. 

“Yeah.” Galo picked up a nearby twig and began to track it through the dirt. Lio stood from his place and slid down next to Galo, watching various lines take shape into a completely nonsensical mess. 

“You see, he says that the earth’s magma is going out of control, and soon it's going to make everything go BOOM!” Galo fervently scratched out a circle that Lio could only deduce was supposed to be the earth. “But he’s building this big spaceship for ten thousand people and he’s going to use it to escape into space.” Galo continued to trace the pictures in the dirt as he told the story, a large square taking shape and the rough appearance of a flame hovering above it. “For that, he’s using the Burnish to power it with some kind of fancy machines, but using it hurts the Burnish. I saw the poor Pizza guy, his fingers went to ash after just a few minutes.”

“That’s terrible.” Lio hissed in anger. “Using the Burnish as _fuel?_ That monster, how could he?” 

“Yeah. It’s not right at all. And besides, he’s totally missing the real problem.” Galo nodded in agreement. 

“The real problem? What do you mean?” 

“The magma of course!” Galo hit the stick over the scribbled mess of a circle he’d made. “If there’s no problem with the magma then there’s no need to escape to space and then everyone survives!” 

“That’s the first I’ve heard of any of it.” Lio shook his head. “You’d think if that was the case then someone other than just Kray would have noticed problems with the core by now. Then again…” Lio’s thoughts spun. “With the Great World Burning only thirty years ago, it could be easy to mistake any signs. They might even be blaming it on the Burnish.” 

“Yeah! See! That’s what I’ve been saying! All we have to do is extinguish the magma! You guys are really good with fire right? You can help us out!”

“You want to _extinguish_ the earth’s magma?” Lio raised a brow. 

“Of course! If it's a fire that’s putting people in danger, I’m there to put it out. It doesn’t matter how big it is! I might be a fugitive but I’m still a member of Burning Rescue!” 

“So you plan to- what? Walk right down into the core?” 

“Why not? Someone has to do something!” 

“This is what I mean about you being reckless. You’d never survive.”

“But you would.” 

“What?” 

“You’re the one who said it before, that you guys don’t burn no matter how hot the fire is. Your bodies always recover, right?” 

Lio stopped short, halted by both the surprisingly sound logic of the argument as well as the realization that Galo had committed that particular information to memory from their last encounter. 

“That’s right, but the magma from the core is a different matter. No one has ever tested it against something of that intensity. Forget that there is no way to reach it, or to calm the magma once we’re there. The Burnish start fires, we don’t put them out.” 

“That’s where I come in!” Galo clapped his chest. “If we work together, we can figure it out.” 

“Impossible.” Lio shook his head. “A Burnish _might_ be able to withstand that kind of heat, but you can’t. You’d be dead in seconds.” 

“If we don’t do anything then the whole world is going to go up in flames! I have to do something, I can’t just sit here!” 

“First this afternoon, now this. Why are you so eager to throw your life away for a bunch of strangers?” 

“You’re not a stranger, Lio.” 

“I’m-” Lio hitched. Those words hung in the air with a weight enough to stall his breath. What- what were they? Lio can feel the heat radiating from Galo’s proximity with near the same intensity of the fire in front of them. It smothered him with the question. 

Who was this Galo to him? 

He didn’t know Galo- not really. They’d crossed paths when he’d feigned being captured, given the pleasure of it to someone other than the Freeze Force in hopes it would irritate them. Then in the mountains, he’d captured Galo- tied him up and left him in that frozen cave with Thyma’s ashes. If they were anything they were- 

“I’m your enemy,” Lio said with a controlled pace and hushed tone. “I’m a Burnish, and you put out fires. We’re complete opposites.” 

“Huh? What are you talking about, you’re not my enemy. You’re trying to save people too, aren’t you?” This time Galo raised a brow, was the one to look at Lio as if he were the idiot. “I’ve seen the way you’re trying to protect the Burnish. I heard them talking about it, how when I captured you it was all to break them out, right? So we’re really both the same! We both have people we want to protect, so we gotta work together!” 

Lio glanced upwards, Galo’s brilliant smile framed by the more familiar hue of the flames that crackled in front of them. How… _how_ was he such an _idiot?_ Didn’t he see that it wasn’t that simple? That things were more complicated than their desire to help their respective people? That Lio wasn’t- he wasn’t the kind of person Galo made him out to be? 

He wasn’t even able to save Thyma, or so many before her that had gone to ash. He still hadn’t freed the hundreds of Burnish Kray held in his custody. He had promised them all a safe home, then watched what he’d painstakingly built crumble beneath them in a matter of minutes because he’d been been too blind to consider a fellow Burnish might betray them. 

Protect them? Lio was barely keeping them alive. If Galo hadn’t stepped in he’d have lost _all_ of them.

“Is that why you saved me?” Lio turned towards the fire, but the bandages still flickered in his periphery. Dried blood weighed heavily on his hands. “So that I could help you?” 

“Is that what you think?” Galo sounded almost incredulous. “I saved you because I wanted to, that’s all. Why wouldn’t I?” 

“Why wouldn't you? Maybe because it involved you getting shot!” Lio’s voice rose. “You could have been killed, do you even comprehend how _stupid_ that was?” 

Galo blinked in mute surprise at those words. 

“Were you… worried about me?” 

“I was not!” 

The lie was immediately sour on his lips and Lio shook his head to try and dismiss the lingering taste. _He wasn’t._ What happened or didn’t happen to Galo was none of his concern. If the man _wanted_ to go and get himself roasted at the earth’s core or put himself in front of Freeze Force weaponry it wasn’t Lio's- 

Except it was. The stubborn pull in his chest wouldn’t let him deny it. Galo had saved his life, had risked everything to make sure the Burnish had time to escape, and he still bore the injuries for those decisions. He looked at them and saw _people_ ; saw something worth defending. He looked at _Lio_ like- Lio didn’t even know. He couldn’t remember the last time anyone looked at him that way.

A stupid grin spread across Galo’s dumb face and for some blaze forsaken reason it put him at ease. 

Maybe consistency really was its own comfort; even if that constant was reckless idiocy. 

“You were,” Galo’s grin split wider. 

“Shut up.” Lio folded his arms over his chest. He was acutely aware of Galo next to him, leaning over as far as his injuries would allow. Even without looking he could feel the smirk radiating down on him. All the more reason to pointedly look away. “So what. You saved my life; the least I can do is make sure your own stupidity doesn’t kill you.” 

“You know, you keep calling it stupid, but it wasn’t stupid to save your life. The Burnish here all care about you; even I can tell that much. They need you Lio. You can’t go dying on them, especially not now.” 

The fire snapped loudly, reverberating in the silence that followed those words. What… what was he supposed to say to that? That Galo was wrong? That the Burnish would survive without him, that Lio wanted them to. Their future -their freedom- was all he really wanted. To see their flames burn strong, to see them roar up proudly against the night sky without any fear... 

That dream felt so far away. 

Yet listening to Galo speak, you’d think it was already in his grasp. 

Lio should move, should go back to the other side of the fire where he didn’t have to feel the towering of Galo’s immediate presence. It draped over him in a blanket of warmth, sparked across his skin in a way that differed from the flames he was so intimately acquainted with. The foreign sensation was one he wanted to shy away from, yet it ensnared him in the same breath. A candle in the flickering expanse of uncertainty, a rock amidst the storm. There were few things Lio dared to lean on; but his head still canted towards the frame next to him. 

“If it’s not stupid, then what is it?” Lio’s voice finally slipped from his lips in a murmur of contemplation. 

“I like to think of it as a bold rescue effort!” Galo declared in a shower of pride. “Think about it! I got to save you, and by saving you I got to help everyone whose lives you’ve touched. How cool is that? Seems more than worth it to me!” 

Worth it…   
Covered in bloodied bandages and he said that they were worth it; genuinely meaning every word.

_What an idiot._

He had no idea what he was getting into. But if he really meant that, if he really intended to stand with them, then… 

“Bold, is it?” A defeated smirk slipped across Lio’s expression. There really was no winning against him, was there? Funny. For once Lio almost didn't mind. “Alright, I’ll grant you that one. Just don’t go and make a habit of it. I’ve only got one shirt and you can’t handle any more holes. There is a difference between being bold and being reckless.”

“Oh yeah?” Defiance sparked behind Galo’s gaze, fuelled higher by Lio’s concession. “Teach me, then.” 

“What?” Lio turned his head and found himself nearly face to face with the firefighter’s broad grin. The space between them shimmered with the challenge. 

“Lets see what you think of as bold! I bet-” 

Lio’s lips pressed against Galo’s and swallowed whatever words would have followed. Time slowed to a snail’s crawl, expanded and contracted small eternities in which he fit seamlessly against the taller’s side. In the span of that moment every question and every answer his mind might conjure seemed crystal clear and perfectly irrelevant. The curvature of Galo’s skin beneath his fingers gave shape to the uncertainty, his solid frame arching back around Lio was the only thing in this upturned world that made sense. 

It was about time something felt right for a change.

The fire roared up behind them, pink flames licking the ceiling and pouring heat over the pair locked together behind its light. 

Lio parted with reluctance, lingering close enough for his nose to brush against Galo’s, lips curling upwards in satisfaction. 

“Bold enough for you?” 

Stunned surprise hovered over Galo for a mute second, the second to process what had happened, to realize the intensity with which he had reciprocated in the moment. Galo’s grin split into its own echo of Lio’s smirk, painted with an unspoken hunger. 

“I don’t know. I’d say that was closer to reckless.” Galo answered by closing the few inches again and Lio's protests were lost to the press of lips. “I think I like this side of you.” 

“Well then.” Lio hovered close, his forehead still whispering against Galo’s, eyes ablaze and reflecting the flames behind them. “Maybe I’ll have to take a page out of your book after all.” 

“Hey...what’s that supposed to mean?” Suspicion raised Galo’s brow. Lio let out a small breath and reluctantly sat back down next to him. Despite the still roaring fire, the sudden absence of Galo’s proximity sent a chill across his shoulders; but he could see the pallor, the faint signs of strain that Galo seemed determined to ignore. 

_Once he was better, then._

It was that single thought with which Lio realized he had already committed himself to Galo’s presence in his life for the foreseeable future. Strange. He didn’t seem to mind that either. 

“I’m going to have to be a least a little bit reckless if we’re going to put out the Earth’s magma.” Lio replied with a shrug.

“Wait- you’re going to help?” 

“I never said I wouldn’t.” 

“But you said-” Galo swung his arm out to point the accusation at Lio, only to have his wrist caught in Lio’s hand before he could pull his side again. 

“That it was stupid, and reckless,” Lio provided, his lips folding into a smirk and his hand squeezing Galo’s wrist. For better or for worse they were both in this to the end. 

Together. 

“And that just may be exactly what this world needs right now.” 


End file.
